Now that the Massachusetts Senate has come up with its version of a budget, the hard work really begins. In the wee hours of Friday morning, the Massachusetts Senate unanimously passed a $41.5 billion spending plan for 2019.
Notably, Stan Rosenberg, the former Senate President, was not there to wrap it up.
Worcester Senator Harriette Chandler, who led the Senate since Rosenberg first stepped down amid sexual allegations against his husband, acknowledged the Senate has gone through some challenging moments this year. Matt Murphy of the State House News Service gives us his take.
Jill Kaufman, NEPR: This must have been a rather emotional end to the debates.
Matt Murphy, State House News Service: I think there's no question that the Senate has been through the ringer this year. It's been a rather unusual session, as they’ve had to deal on multiple occasions with different situations arising from the controversy over former Senator Rosenberg, and his husband, that finally ended in his resignation.
Chandler, at the end of the debate, well into the night -- I think she said, “I won't let anybody say the Senate is in chaos, that we have no stability. We are strong. We are going forward.”
I think she was trying to send a message that this is a budget they’re proud of, that the controversies that have dominated the headlines haven't dominated their internal workings, and their focus on getting this budget done, and getting some other pieces of legislation done, or at least on track.
The House has its own version of a budget and differences have to be worked out. What will be the sticking points?
Certainly, similar bottom lines. These are both $41.5 billion budgets.
The Senate, over the course of their debate, added about $75 million in spending, but I don't think the money is going to be the real issue here.
I think you're going to end up looking at some of the policy sections that the Senate added to the budget, including an immigration measure that was sponsored by Senator [James] Eldridge. [It was] built on what was known as the Safe Communities Act, legislation that would restrict the state's cooperation -- or local law enforcement cooperation -- with immigration agents.
The governor has said he will veto this if it gets to his desk. [House] Speaker Bob DeLeo has been a little reticent to embrace this. He does not, or at least has not in the past, suggested that he wants to bring this to the floor for a vote in the House. But it will be subject to negotiations as these move behind closed doors for the next month or so.
The Senate passed an amendment that would allocate $1.5 million in aid to rural schools in Massachusetts in the next year. Funding issues for rural schools comes up every year. Could the money stay in the final budget?
It could. It’s certainly not a tall ask. It's not a lot of money in the context of the overall spending in the budget. These issues have come up.
The Senate has led the drive in recent years to increase spending on aid. But the Senate tried to go big. Last session, they proposed something that would have added about $200 million a year to spend on local schools. That did not go anywhere in the legislature, with the House. They've tried a little more modest targeted increases this time. Like anything, these tend to get subjected to horse trading when it comes down to different priorities, and there's a lot in both these bills. It's something to watch.
Finally, the perennial question of whether there should be a weekend free from sales tax in Massachusetts is still up in the air. The senators turned it down. But the idea is not dead in the water. Could this still land on Governor Baker's desk?
The governor, a big proponent of this, has actually proposed in separate legislation to make a sales tax holiday in the summer a permanent fixture. The Senate did vote it down -- a budget amendment that was filed by the minority party during the budget debate -- but that was not really a surprise.
The legislature has never actually done this in the budget process. They prefer to wait. I think you heard some of the rationale, Senator Karen Spilka, chair of the Ways and Means Committee in the Senate, talking about how she's hoping the revenues don't plummet in May and June. So far, so good this year. Revenues are really trending well above estimates, and it would not be surprising to see a proposal surface in late June or July for an August sales tax holiday.
